


New Year Gathering : A Report

by Akuma2x1



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-05
Updated: 2004-09-05
Packaged: 2017-10-26 13:26:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/283699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akuma2x1/pseuds/Akuma2x1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Relena dragged Heero to an Anime gathering where he meets Duo who wears a costume from the same Anime as his. Relena, as evil as she is, tricked innocent Heero into attending a yaoi gathering.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea is taken from a real event. *grins evilly* I took care not to mention any names involved in the real event. However, for those of you who recognize your roles in this story, please understand if you find some actions and events in this fic were different from the reality. I modified some of them obviously for the story's advantage (namely sticking Heero and Duo together *hides inside her turtleshell*)

"Heero, come on. It's not a big convention. Honest! You will enjoy it!"

"You said the same thing last year. I ended up trampled by hundreds of Anime maniac girls."

"It's a pretty small number for me...."

A glare. "Relena..."

"Okay okay, this time it's not an official convention. It's just a small Anime gathering with relatively close friends to celebrate the end of the year. I swear, Heero."

"How many will be in this 'small' gathering?"

"No more than twenty five."

"And there are other boys in that gathering?"

"Of course, Heero."

"You swear on your pink teddy bear?"

"I swear!"

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was eight o'clock in the morning. A boy with blue eyes and short chocolate brown hair stood near the small pond of the city garden. He was wearing a white T-shirt, short jeans, and a pair of yellow sneakers. A brown, medium sized backpack stood next to him. There were a group of girls standing on the other side of the pond, chattering eagerly. He looked around him and wondered whether he was a fool to trust his cousin again. Relena had sworn upon her most important treasure after all. She had said all members were to meet at this garden's pond before departing to Reyna Beach where the gathering would be held, about three hours ride from the city. Here he was, right on time and at the assigned place, but he didn't see anyone save a group of chattering girls. Where were the other guys?

"Heero!"

The boy looked up and saw a brown haired girl running toward him. He glared as she stopped in front of him. "You're late."

"Sorry." Relena grinned and looked behind her, "Hilde, come on, let's go get the other girls here." The short purple haired girl behind Relena followed her. Heero noticed then that a boy was standing near where Hilde had been, smiling at the two running girls. He had long chestnut hair, tied behind his back. A black knapsack was hanging on his right shoulder.

So there was another guy joining the gathering. Heero felt relieved to know that Relena hadn't betrayed him this time. Since the other boy was still staring in the other direction, Heero felt safe studying him. The boy had on a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of boots the same color as his shirt. There was a silver necklace without a pendant hanging around his neck. Overall, the long haired boy looked quite cool. Heero was startled when the boy turned toward him and smiled. However, before he managed to give a reaction to that smile, Relena had come back and dragged him away.

"Hilde, I, and the other girls need to be in the same car because we have to discuss the preparation for tonight event. The others have already arranged their seats in the other cars. That leaves you with Duo in the equipment mini van. I'll see you later in Reyna Beach," Relena explained as she stopped in front of the blue mini van.

"What? Hey, wait!" Heero shouted after his departing cousin.

"We have to depart now, I'll talk to you later when we arrive, Heero," Relena shouted back and jumped into the black car in front of the mini van. She stuck her head out of the window and signaled to the other cars. "Let's go girls!!"

Relena's car shot out of the garden, followed by two other cars, leaving Heero gaping at their departure. He was still trying to comprehend what his cousin had told him.

"How long are you going to stand there?" The amused voice from inside the mini van snapped Heero from his dumbfounded state. He turned his head toward the voice and saw the long haired boy sitting in the driver's seat. The boy was gesturing to him to get in. "C'mon. Put your bag in the back and jump in. We need to trail after them."

Blinking, Heero did as he was told and got into the mini van. The front seat was one long bench, not separated between driver and passenger so there was plenty of comfortable space for him. The long haired boy smiled at him as he sat down. "Not much a talker, are you? I'm Duo Maxwell, by the way." He extended one hand toward Heero.

The same name Relena had told him in her rush. Heero took the hand and shook it firmly. "Heero Yuy."

Duo nodded then grinned. "Ready to chase after the girls then?"

Girls? Oh Duo meant Relena and her cohorts? Heero nodded and the next thing he knew, they were zooming out of the garden. The tires screeched as the van took a turn. No wonder no one wants to join this guy, Heero thought as he fumbled with his seatbelt and considered praying for a safe journey. Instead he said loudly, "You are driving like a mouse being chased by a hungry cat."

Duo laughed merrily. "This is nothing at all. We will speed up when we enter the freeway later."

Heero looked upward and prayed. Just his luck to get a speeding maniac as the driver.

"So you get ditched by your girlfriend?" Duo asked.

Ditched? Girlfriend? Heero blinked and stared questioningly at the chestnut haired boy, who noticed the gesture and elaborated.

"I mean Relena."

Relena as his girlfriend? Heero would rather die than woo the impossible girl. He snorted loudly. "She is my annoying cousin who has nothing better to do than make my life difficult. I'm going to have a word with her later about this."

"This?"

"Dragging me the gathering but leaving me to join her friends in the other car."

"You would rather be sitting among the enthusiastic girls?"

Heero turned toward his companion as he detected the bewildered tone. "No, I don't like them. But at least she could sit with me and have arranged for some other guys to sit with us."

Duo's violet eyes had lightened up during his talk, though Heero didn't know what he had said to cause it. The long haired boy cocked his head slightly as he talked. "But she did. She sat you with me, didn't she?"

"She did." Maybe Relena did have her good side, Heero grudgingly admitted. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the seat, slightly more relaxed than before because Duo had reduced speed due to the short queue to enter the freeway. His eyes watched the cars, looking for Relena's car.

"There they are. We finally caught up with them." Duo pointed forward; at the same time Heero saw the black car of his cousin.

"I saw Relena's car. I wonder what she had to discuss with the others? I thought they had discussed everything about this event for the last two months."

Duo grinned at that. "Hilde told me that she was having trouble with her cosplay costume and one other girls forgot to bring a part of her costume. I think they are trying on their costumes in there."

"Oh." That's why Relena didn't want him there. They probably needed to take their clothes off to try on the costumes.

"Talking about costumes, what is yours?"

Their mini van passed the highway entrance and Heero found himself clutching his seatbelt for dear life as Duo pressed down hard on the gas pedal. They shot past Relena's car and broke free from the crowded lane. Heero glared at the crazy driver. "Do you have a drivers license?"

Eyes still on the road, Duo answered. "Just got it last month. Why?"

"Your driving inspector was crazy to let you pass the test."

Duo laughed merrily, and to Heero's surprise, reduced the speed. "Sorry, I often get carried away."

Heero snorted. "I just finished high school and I would like to live long enough to taste the college life please."

Duo laughed again and Heero thought the sound was quite pleasing.

"You haven't answered my question." Duo pointed out after a lull of comfortable silence.

Heero raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"

"Your costume."

"Hn, it's Odin Lowe."

Duo perked up at his statement. "Odin Lowe from Grand Wing?"

Heero nodded, secretly pleased that Duo knew about his favorite Anime. "You know the Anime?"

"Of course, " Duo smiled fondly. "It's my favorite Anime. I like the story. It has a deep plot and good characterization of the characters. Not to mention that the mecha design is cool."

"The music is also good." Heero added.

"Of course." Duo grinned. "This is a nice coincidence. I'm going to cosplay as Solo Minworst, you know."

Heero blinked. "The annoying pilot 02 who likes to pester Odin?"

"Oi! He is not annoying." Duo protested. "He cares for Odin."

Heero raised an eyebrow, "By shooting him at their first meeting?"

"If he didn't care, the shot would have been fatal, I believe. He did save Odin from the enemy's clutches after that. The fact that he didn't kill Odin for stealing a part of his mecha shows that Solo does care for Odin. "

"More like suicidal to me. He dares to tease Odin who is always armed and will not hesitate to kill. He even dares to touch him."

"Ah, but no matter how many times he touches Odin, Solo is still alive at the end, right? That shows that Odin never means to harm him. Why, he even saved Solo from the enemy's prison instead of terminating him like he was supposed to do. And talking about suicidal, that's more Odin's forte. Trying to self-destruct was a stupid thing to do."

Heero grunted, admitting Duo was right but wasn't willing to let the matter drop. "Solo is still annoying. He likes to interrupt Odin when he's with the princess."

It was Duo's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Put yourself in Odin's shoes. Would you like being stalked by a girl who often asked you to kill her?"

It was like being followed by a maniac fangirl like Relena. Heero shuddered. "No."

"I think Odin also feel the same," Duo said. "He may look annoyed but inside he feels grateful for Solo's interruption."

Heero knew he would feel grateful if someone interrupted Relena while she was speaking to him so he didn't protest at Duo's opinion about Odin's character. "Well, you chose a suitable character as a cosplay. Your hair is long enough to be braided like Solo used to wear his hair."

Duo grinned. "Not only suitable, Solo is my favorite character after all." The boy's grin faltered a little, "Though to be honest, I never braid my hair so I don't know how to. I will have to ask one of the girls to help me with the hair."

Heero noted that Duo wasn't too keen to ask for the girls help and could sympathize with him. "I can braid your hair if you want me to."

"You know how to braid hair?" Duo looked surprised.

Heero scowled. "Relena used to ask me to help with braiding her hair when we were little."

Duo grinned slightly. "I would like the help, thanks."

Heero nodded in reply.

"Did you choose Odin because your features are similar to Odins or because he is your favorite character?" Duo asked.

"Both."

The long haired boy smiled fondly. "You're lucky. Odin's clothes are much more simpler than Solo's. Your hair is even as messy as his."

Heero glared at his companion. "It's not messy, just a little, ruffled."

"A little?" Duo chortled. "Heero, honestly, your hair is as tidy as a bird nest."

"Omae o korosu." Heero growled out the words he had had the habit of saying whenever he was annoyed since he'd started watching Grand Wing.

Duo glanced at Heero and grinned. "You do a good imitation of Odin's death glare and his famous words, you know."

"And you are as annoying as Solo is to Odin."

The grin on Duo's face went wider. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Despite annoyed, Heero understood how pleased Duo was to be compared with his favorite character just as Heero felt a little thrill when Duo pointed out he was like Odin. The understanding meant he couldn't stay mad at the long haired boy. He shook his head slightly, if not fondly and said, "Baka."

Duo beamed. "That's also what Odin likes to say to Solo."

Heero snorted and refused to say anymore.

"It's really a nice coincidence to have a cosplaying friend from the same Anime. I thought I would be the only one cosplaying as a Grand Wing character in this gathering." Duo, Heero noted amusedly, was really like Solo, who also liked to chatter. "And to top it all off, the characters we chose are the famous pairing. Does Relena know you're going to cosplay as Odin?"

Heero shook his head. "She will only force me to wear something more complex and embarrassing."

"I didn't tell Hilde about my costume either. Though she is my best friend, I will not let her choose my costume. She wanted me to wear a kitty themed costume for God's sake." Duo said the last sentence with a grimace then brightened. "This will be a great surprise for them then. I bet the girls will go crazy when they see us pose as the famous couple."

A frown creased Heero's forehead as Duo mentioned 'famous couple' for the second time. "What do you mean by famous couple?"

"Odin and Solo of course. Though judging how you find Solo annoying, I guess you'd have a different pairing, but you gotta to admit that Odin and Solo is the most popular couple. What couple do you like anyway?"

"Wait, what do you mean by couple here?" Heero was confused and felt something wasn't right. "I don't understand."

Duo answered while still keeping his eyes on the road. "I'm talking about yaoi couple, of course."

Heero's eyes widened at the 'yaoi' word. Relena often chattered about her obsessiveness with yaoi. Heero had stopped listening to that kind of chatter when he understood that Relena was talking about two males screwing each other. However the damage was done and he had gotten a basic knowledge about what yaoi meant.

"YAOI?!" Heero sputtered. "How could you think about Odin and Solo like that?"

"The girls all think like that," Duo answered. He turned his attention from the road to Heero. "You look very surprised. You do know that this is a yaoi gathering, right?"

"WHAT???" Heero shouted. His eyes widened in shock. "Yaoi gathering??"

Duo nodded, eyes turning back to the road. "Gathering for yaoi fans. From your reaction, I take it that you didn't know about it."

"Of course I didn't! If I'd known, I wouldn't be going!" Heero sputtered. He should have known there was something amiss when Relena asked him to go. "I'm going to kill her for this later. Turn the car around and let's go back."

"Can't." Duo answered.

Heero glared. "Why can't you?"

"You forgot this is an equipment vehicle. All the equipment and half the food supply for the gathering are in here. If we turn back, the gathering will be ruined," Duo explained calmly.

"I don't care."

"I care," Duo countered. "And even if I could turn back, I won't. I want to attend the gathering."

"You are willing to attend a yaoi gathering?" Heero looked at his companion incredulously.

"Of course." Duo glanced at Heero. "I like yaoi after all."

Heero was so perplexed that it took him a while to understand the statement. "Are you telling me that you are gay?"

"A guy who likes yaoi isn't always gay, but yes, I am," Duo answered coolly.

Heero unconsciously shifted away at the statement. The movement wasn't lost on Duo, though the long haired boy's eyes were on the road. "Oh please, I'm not going to ravish you just because I'm gay." Duo sent Heero a grin. "Though you are kinda cute."

"I'm not cute!" Heero glared. "How about the other guys in this gathering, are they gay as well?"

Duo blinked and glanced at Heero. "Heero, we are the only guys in this gathering. The rest of them are girls."

"WHAT!?" Heero hollered this time. Oh, Relena was going to be so dead when he got his hand on her. Heero spent the rest of journey plotting 1001 ways to exact his revenge on his cousin.


	2. Chapter 2

"RE.LE.NA." Heero growled threateningly. He had pounced his cousin as soon as they had arrived at Reyna Beach and dragged her into a secluded area behind the cottage.

"Uhm.. Hi, Heero." Relena started backing away.

"It's true that I am not the only guy in the gathering." Heero glared at his cousin. "But you didn't mention that there would be only two guys among a pack of bloodthirsty girls."

"We are not bloodthirsty." Relena protested. "And I didn't lie to you. You have Duo as your companion."

"He is gay," Heero growled again. He would have throttled his cousin as planned if he hadn't been interrupted.

"Relena, there you are!!" Hilde shouted as she approached them. "What are you doing here? We have so many things to do! C'mon!" With that statement, the dark haired girl dragged his cousin away, leaving Heero to fume alone.

"What does me being gay have to do with my being your companion?"

Heero was startled by the sudden question. He turned around and saw Duo standing not a few feet from him. For once, the long haired boy's expression was closed. "You don't want to be friends with me just because I'm gay?"

Heero shifted feeling a little uncomfortable. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Then what did you mean?" Duo advanced. "You and I have the same interest in Anime. We talked just fine before you knew I was gay. I'll even bet you enjoyed our discussion. I thought we could be good friends. Now, just because you know I'm gay, you don't want to be my friend anymore. Is that it?"

"It's not like that," Heero protested as he backed away. "The fact that Relena tricked me into coming to this yaoi gathering, pisses me off so much so that I look for any excuses to throw at her. I like you just fine." He was forced to stop when his back hit the wall of the cottage.

Something lit up in Duo's violet eyes. The long haired boy stopped his advanced and stood only a few inches away from Heero. His eyes regarded Heero's blue eyes seriously. "So you don't mind being my friend?"

"Of course not," Heero answered. His heart was acting strangely, beating a little faster than it normally did.

"Good." Duo straightened and grinned. "It's not so bad, Heero. Most of the girls here are nice. You can discuss almost all Anime with some of them. Just don't mind their biased opinion when it comes to the male characters."

"Make that a VERY biased opinion," Heero said grumpily, feeling relieved as his heartbeat went back to normal. Nothing much he could do until he could go back home. The beach was in a rather secluded area with no public transportation. Since he couldn't drive, he wouldn't be able to get back without help. He decided to trust Duo and try to be more civil towards the other girls. Maybe he could have fun... Maybe.

Duo grinned. "Really, you should try to enjoy the gathering. It's not so different to an ordinary Anime gathering after all."

Heero said grouchily, "Since I'm stuck here, I don't see that I have any other choice. I can't drive and the driver won't take me home."

"I'll take you home tomorrow." Duo grinned wider and slung an arm around Heero's shoulder. "C'mon, let's help the girls with the preparations, shall we? I'll help you plan your revenge on Relena later, how about that?"

"Deal." Having decided to make the best of his situation, Heero followed Duo to the front of the cottage. "Do you know that you like touching people without permission, just like Solo?" Heero pointed out as he tapped Duo's arm around his shoulder.

"And you're as grouchy as Odin," Duo countered. "We will make a good couple."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The cottage, Heero found out, was quiet small and barely accommodated twenty people. It was a two story wooden building with many windows which admitted the sea breeze. It had two bedrooms, one on the ground floor and one on the upper floor. Since it was especially designed to host the partying group, the living room took up half of the ground floor along with a small kitchen and bathroom. The living room was pretty much an empty space, decorated with one long couch and a television set. The upper floor was smaller. Other than the one bedroom, it had a small empty area where the staircases were and a balcony facing the sea.

"We have twenty people here and only two bedrooms. What was Relena thinking?" Heero commented as Duo and he exited the upper bedroom where they'd put their bags and went back down.

"Well, the gathering will be held from dusk till dawn so I don't think sleeping will be in the schedule. The bedrooms are merely a place to keep our bags. One for the girls and one for the boys." Duo grinned. "It's a good thing there are only two of us. We won't get cramped like the girls."

Heero snorted. He would bleach that pink teddy bear white if Relena even dared to suggest he share a room with the girls. And speak of the devil...

"There you are." Relena approached them. "Duo, since you are good at fixing stuff, can you take a look at the bathroom door? It won't close. I have tried to contact the cottage's owner but he isn't answering."

"Sure, Princess." Duo saluted and went to check the door to the bathroom which was located next to the stairs.

"Princess?" Heero raised an eyebrow at his cousin.

"That's my nickname," Relena explained haughtily. "We usually call each other by nicknames."

Heero managed not to roll his eyes at Relena's choice of nickname. "And what's Duo's?"

"Death."

The fact that Duo had used Solo Minworst's code name as his nickname was not a surprise. After all, he himself had used Odin Lowe's code name as his nickname. Heero couldn't help but feel slightly happy. He had found someone who was as fond of Grand Wing as him.

"Since you don't have anything to do, come and help me with the decorations." Relena took his arm and dragged him away.

Heero followed because he had nothing better to do. Relena ushered him to the kitchen table and dropped a pack of flat balloons to the top. "Help me blow up these balloons until they are about head size. I'm going to see what Hilde's up to." And off the Princess went to the other side of the living room where her friend was writing on some cards with the other girls.

Heero sat down and started on the balloons. His first balloon exploded in less than a minute.

"Don't make them bigger than head size!!" Relena shouted from across the room.

Heero grunted and worked on the second balloon. It didn't explode but instead of the usual smooth round shape, the balloon was long and narrow, more like a capsule. Relena had come back to help him. She took one look at his balloon before snickering.

"What's wrong?" Heero asked his cousin.

"Nothing." Relena grinned. "Your balloon is like a banana."

Heero shrugged and went to work on the next balloon. He blew it up in the same way but the result was anything but normal. This time his balloon was like Mickey Mouse's head. Relena giggled at him. Heero threw the finished balloon to join the previous one and worked on the next one.

"Why are you giggling, Princess?" Duo asked as he approached them.

"Heero has talent with the balloons." Relena gestured to her cousin who was again producing another strange shaped balloon. "How is the bathroom door?"

"I have fixed the door, but it's an emergency repair only. Tell the others not to turn the lock forcefully or it will break."

"I'll do that." Relena stood up. "Can you give Heero a hand?"

Duo grinned and sat down, "Sure, this blowing job should be easy."

Relena laughed loudly as she left while Heero gasped. His hold on the newly made balloon weakened; and since he hadn't tied it yet, the balloon deflated rapidly, but Heero didn't care about the balloon. He was glaring at Duo. "Why the hell do you use such words?"

"What words?" Duo asked innocently.

Heero glared more fiercely, "You know what those words meant."

"Stop fighting, boys," Relena said as she approached them again. She ruined her admonishment by grinning. "It's just a joke, Heero. After those balloons, do these special balloons as well please. I'm going to check the barbecue pit outside." She put some small boxes on the table and went out of the cottage.

Heero looked down at the boxes and gaped as he recognized the contents.

"The girls are really planning to have all yaoi fun in full force." Duo grinned. He opened one of the boxes and pulled out a transparent rubber. "Condom balloons. Wicked!"

The fact that he had been asked to blow the condoms into balloons was hard to take. Heero's angry shout reverberated around the cottage. "RELENAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Relena o korosu," Heero muttered as he climbed up on the chair.

"You're sounding more like Odin, you know." Duo grinned and handed him three of the full blown balloons, two normal balloons and one special one. Special because Heero refused to call it condom balloon.

"Not only did she asked me to blow up these stupid balloons but she also expects me to hang them around." Heero snatched the balloons and attached them to the ceiling.

"Stop bitching, you only blew up one condom, I'm doing the rest of them," Duo pointed out as he steadied the chair Heero was standing on. "It's the lube that makes them slippery, causing them to be even harder to blow up and tie."

"Serves you right."

Finished with the balloons, Heero jumped down. No sooner he set his feet on the floor than Hilde walked toward Duo and him.

"Finished with the decorations? Good, lunch is ready in the Kinky Kitchen."

"Kinky Kitchen?" Duo asked the girl.

"We name every room in the cottage." Hilde grinned.

Heero didn't want to know why the kitchen was called kinky so he stayed silent. Duo had grinned at Hilde's answer. It was clear that the long haired boy wasn't in the least disturbed with the naming.

"What do you call the bathroom then?"

"Peeping Hole."

Heero blanched while Duo snickered.

"The living room?" Duo asked Hilde again.

"Pleasure Hall."

"Bedrooms?"

"The lower bedroom is the Orgy Suite." Hilde grinned wider, "The upper one is the Wedding Suite."

"What??!!!" Heero barked. It surely wasn't a coincidence to name the bedroom that Duo and he occupied as the Wedding Suite.

"Wedding Suite?" Duo put on a regretful face. "Too bad I've used all the condoms for decoration...."

Hilde snickered. "If I can get you some more condoms, will you let me take pictures of your wedding night?"

Heero so didn't want to hear this conversation. He growled and left the snickering twosome to get his lunch. He passed the bathroom on his walk and saw a card pasted on its door. The big letters of 'Peeping Hole' were written on it. The girls had even drawn a picture of a hole on the card. Heero wondered what his cousin had gotten him into. The girls were all crazy, Heero was sure of it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The lunch was peaceful, much to Heero's surprise. The girls arrived, took a plate of food, and went off again. Some chattered about their still-not-finished-costumes, some worried about not being able to get the same hairstyle as their cosplay characters. They thankfully left Heero alone to enjoy his lunch. That was a relief for him to not be hounded by the girls. As he ate his lunch on the kitchen table, Heero started to think that this yaoi gathering wasn't so bad after all.

Duo came in to get his lunch then sat next to Heero. "What are you thinking about?"

"Hn."

"Oy, don't pull that Odin act with me." Duo pointed his fork to Heero.

"You have no shame."

"Hilde and I are just bantering." Duo grinned. "Anyway, back to my question, what are you thinking about? You looked quite happy back then."

Heero shrugged. "I'm happy the girls don't chase me around."

"That's because they are worrying about their costumes," Duo chuckled. "Wait until we wear our costumes and then you'll see their true nature."

Heero shuddered. "Maybe I shouldn't wear the costume."

"Don't worry, I'll protect my darling Odin."

Heero glared. "Omae o korosu."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After finishing their lunch, the boys were asked to set up the television and DVD system. Once that was finished, Relena asked them to light the barbecue pit. Unfortunately, the coals for the barbecue refused to be lit, no matter how hard and fast they waved their fans. Duo cursed for the sixth time while Heero wished he had Odin's laser beam to light up the coals in a blink. Still the damn coals refused to light up.

After an hour had passed with curses and glares to the innocent coals, a few girls stepped outside to help the boys. The girls had worn their costumes and chattered cheerfully among themselves. Heero's eyes were quickly drawn to the girl with light brown hair. She was wearing a red knee length coat, black undershirt, and pants that were the same color as his undershirt. Her hands were covered with white gloves and she was wearing black army boots. Her light brown hair was braided in similar style to Solo's hair but it was obviously shorter in length. It only reached slightly below the girl's neck.

What a cool costume. Heero was positive that he was drooling. When the girl turned, he could see the unique symbol on the back of the red coat and Heero instantly recognized which character the girl was impersonating. She was cosplaying as Cirle, a main character in a recent favorite Anime, which had almost similar persona as Solo in Grand Wing; not to mention their almost similar appearances as well.

"Hilde! About damn time!"

Heero was surprised at Duo's growled greeting. He looked away from the girl and saw the long haired boy staring at the same girl in obvious irritation. Heero blinked as his mind made the connection. He quickly turned to look at the approaching Cirle in disbelief. "Hilde??"

Cirle-impersonating- Hilde smiled. "Yup! What do you think of my costume?" The girl twirled to show off said costume.

"You look terrific." Heero was really impressed when he noticed that the unique black symbol on the back of the red coat was hand-sewn. Hilde must have spent a lot of time working on the costume.

Hilde smiled beamingly.

Duo strangely growled.

"Duo?" Heero looked at his long haired friend questioningly.

Duo thrust his fan to Hilde. "The coals are bitches. You can try lighting them up while we change into our costumes." With that, the long haired boy dragged Heero back into the cottage.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Heero planted his feet once they were inside the house and refused to budge.

Duo turned to him in confusion. "Where? Bathroom, of course. I need to clean up after struggling with the damn coals."

Heero looked pointedly at his arm which was held by Duo.

"Oops, sorry." Duo hurriedly released Heero's arm and smiled sheepishly. But then he grinned mischievously, "Don't you want to take a bath together?"

Heero crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at the long haired boy. "Omae o korosu."

"Guess not. I'll go first then," Duo chuckled and went into the bathroom whistling, his good mood evidently restored. Heero was still wondering what had made Duo so irritated before when a familiar voice called out to him.

"Heero, what are you doing? Why aren't you in your costume yet!?"

Heero closed his eyes as his cousin's shrill voice came from behind. Just his luck, Relena had come to pester him again. He turned around, ready to put the fear of God to his spoiled cousin but was taken aback at her appearance. "What the....."

Heero was really utterly speechless. Relena was dressed in her costume. There was nothing special about the clothes. She was wearing white pants with a blue and white horizontal striped T-shirt. What *was* unusual was the state of her hair. It was horribly white. Horrible because Relena hadn't appeared to use white coloring spray to dye her hair. It looked more like white powder had been dumped onto her head; not to mention that her hair stuck up like ruined spikes.

"That bad, huh?" Relena looked ready to cry. She patted her horribly white hair carefully. "I thought one can of white spray would be enough but it wasn't. I need to make my entire hair white so I thought I'd use flour. I wet my hair a little and applied the flour but it turned out horrible!"

Heero opened his mouth but then closed it again. He tried, really tried, to express his condolences, but what came out was a snigger instead. Seeing Relena's teary eyes turn murderous, Heero ran up to his and Duo's room and locked the door to prevent his enraged cousin from attacking him. He then collapsed on the floor and laughed loudly. Here he was thinking about how to take revenge on his cousin when It appeared he didn't have to do anything after all. That horrible hair was a fitting punishment from God himself.

His laughter had subsided when there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Heero stood up.

"Duo."

Heero schooled his face into his usual expression and opened the door. Duo came in, still wearing the same clothes but with his hair damp around the edges. "Why did you lock the door?"

"Relena." Heero couldn't' help but twitch his mouth up at the image of his white haired cousin. He gathered his bathing necessities and headed toward the bathroom for his turn. He was still in a cheerful mood when he returned to the bedroom after his bath. Not even the paper plate with 'Wedding Suite' pasted on the front of the door could ruin his mood. He was planning to get out his camera and take a few pictures of his cousin. They would be very nice blackmail material in the future should the need arise.

That thought was swiftly forgotten when he stepped into the bedroom and came face to face with a very real life Solo Minworst. Heero stared and stared, not being able to look away from the sight in front of him. Duo had worn his Solo's costume which consisted of tight, sleeveless red turtleneck and black leather pants. His plain necklace was now adorned with a cross. With the sleeveless turtleneck, Heero could see what the plain T-shirt had hidden before. Duo had nicely developed muscles. They were not big but they were obviously wiry. Solo's tight costume was really suitable for him and showed off his body.

"I take it you like the view?"

Heero's eyes snapped up and saw Duo grinning pleasantly at him. Shaking his admiration off, Heero hurriedly put down his bath necessities and changed into his costume. He was aware of Duo's eyes never leaving him. He had gotten used changing in the locker room with other boys around that he didn't think to ask Duo to leave before he changed his clothes. And moreover, it was too late to ask the long haired boy now so Heero finished putting on his costume quickly. He was fortunate that Odin's costume wasn't complicated. It only consisted of a green tank top with blue jeans and a jacket. Finished putting on his costume, Heero then straightened and looked at his companion.

Duo's long hair was unraveled and he was gesturing it to Heero. "You promised to help me braid my hair."

Heero liked the sight of Duo's waist length hair falling around him, but of course he wouldn't admit it to the already, pleased boy. Heero gathered Duo's long mass and was surprised to find how soft and silky it was. He had thought that all boys had rough hair just like his, but Duo appeared to take care of his hair well. Heero couldn't resist combing his fingers through the hair before he started braiding it.

"You really look like Solo," Heero said when he'd finished braiding the long hair.

"Thank you." Duo turned around and smiled widely at him. His violet eyes looked at him intensely, starting from his legs and trailed up toward his face. "And you look as delicious as Odin."

Heero hoped he didn't flush red at the praise. It was a nice thing that he had the same eye color as Odin so he didn't have to wear contact lenses to change his eye's color. Come to think it, Duo also had the same eye color as Solo. It was really a very fortunate coincidence. Why, they'd even got the same hair color as their favorite Anime characters.

"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Duo asked suddenly.

Heero raised his eyebrows in question. "Why do you ask?"

Duo leaned against wall and waved toward both of them. "I think we are reincarnations of Solo and Odin. We have the same hair and eye color as them."

"Reincarnation doesn't mean we would retain our previous appearance," Heero countered. "And moreover, if I'm Odin reincarnated, I'd have pulled my gun to shoot Solo's reincarnation for being the same irritating nuisance."

Duo snorted. "I told you, those two are best friends." He grinned impishly. "More than friends actually."

Heero rolled his eyes. "You and your gay, biased perception."

Duo chuckled. "Fine, I won't try to convince you now. We don't have time to discuss it thoroughly and it's not as if you can pull your gun to shut me up if I want to talk about it."

"Wanna bet?" Heero took out the almost realistic toy gun from his bag. He'd had it specially made to go along with his costume

Duo blinked. "It's a toy, right? You're not going to shoot me with it, right?"

Heero just grinned nastily and pointed his gun toward his now braided friend. "Don't tempt me."

"Okay okay" Duo held up his hands in surrender. "I will be a good little gay boy for tonight."

Heero smirked in satisfaction and put his gun into the inner pocket of his jacket.

"I think it's time to go down," Duo said as he straightened from the wall. "I hope Hilde managed to light up the coals."

Oh right, the damn coals. He didn't want to ruin his costume by struggling with the coals again. Heero grunted and followed Duo out of their room.


	4. Chapter 4

"They are coming downnnnnnnnnn!!!"

Heero heard the shrill announcement just as he came down to the living room with Duo following him. The girls had flocked around him at the announcement. Almost all of them were armed with a camera or a video camera.

"Oh my God!! Odin and Solo!!! Kill me now!!" One of the girls sighed dramatically. Heero noted she was wearing some kind of tennis uniform before her camera light flashed. It was followed by all the other cameras and he was blinded for a good minute.

"Duo, you bastard! You didn't tell me you two planned this whole thing!" Hilde's voice was heard among the girls squealing.

"Sorry Hilde," Duo answered, his tone not sounding the least bit sorry at all. Heero noted that the long haired boy's voice was very close to him. So close that could feel the breath brush against the back of his neck.

"It's Cirle! We call each other by our cosplaying characters name and behave like them during the party," Hilde pointed out. "And don't think that you can make me believe you're sorry! I'm not buying it."

"Right, Cirle. I'll make it up to you. How about we pose for you like this?" Duo spoke and suddenly Heero felt a pair of arms wind around his waist and pull him backward, causing his back to rest against Duo's front.

"What the?!" Heero struggled to get away but Duo dropped his chin onto Heero's shoulder and whispered to him.

"Better let them take the picture of us now. They will soon be satisfied. If you run now, they will chase you for the whole night."

Heero shuddered at the thought being chased for the whole night by squealing girls. He quickly decided that it was better to endure a few minutes of this rather than spend the entire night running away from the girls.

"OH YES!!! You're forgiven!!! Go Solo!" Hilde crowed, followed by louder squeals from the other girls.

More lights flashed as the girls took pictures of the boys. Heero closed his eyes, not wanting to be blinded by the lights. Of course the girls took it as his contentment of being held by Duo. They squealed and sighed even louder. Oh Duo was so going to be dead.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Omae o korosu." Heero said as Duo and he strode out of the cottage. The blood thirsty girls were finally satisfied after a fifteen minute photo session. He had to admit that Duo was right. Now the girls were contented with the images they'd got. They even didn't follow them out.

"You don't want to do that." Duo said. "I'll help you plan a good revenge on your cousin to make this up to you."

"You'd better." Heero grunted.

They arrived at the barbecue pit and saw that the coals had turned red and blazed. Some of the girls were cooking fish, sausages, and corn on top of it.

"How?" Duo asked in bewilderment. Heero echoed the same question with his eyebrows.

"We used the fans," the girl with white tank top and blue jeans answered. Her skin was dark and her shoulder length hair was styled into curly locks. Heero was intrigued that he couldn't recognize what Anime character she was impersonating.

"We used fans as well," Duo said. "And the damn coals never lit up like they are right now."

"She is a natural at using a fan," the other girl chirped in. "So natural that we decided to call her Blowfish instead of Sw.."

"I'm not Blowfish!" The girl protested.

"Yes, you are," the other girls answered in a chorus, making the dark skinned girl pout.

"Well damn..." Duo sighed then stepped forward to help the girls with grilling their dinner.

Heero understood Duo's feelings for he was feeling the same. It was really a blow to their male ego that the girls could light the fire better than them. God really had a weird sense of humor sometimes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The barbecue dinner party fortunately went smoothly. When other girls came and relieved them from the grilling job, Heero and Duo went inside to enjoy their dinner. But first Heero went upstairs to retrieve his camera and take some pictures of his unaware cousin. With blackmail materials in hand, Heero's mood lightened as he spooned the food onto his plate. Duo and he found an empty place on the couch and sat down.

Heero looked around as he ate their hard won dinner, the grilled fish, corn, and some sausages. The other girls were loitering around. Some were eating and some were chattering with each other. Heero noted that some of the girls had interesting costumes. He looked at the girl wearing a violet robe, wrapped with white bandages. There were black bat ears sticking from her hair and a black mask covering her mouth. It was a good costume with a complex design. However, Heero couldn't recognize to which character the costume belonged. He asked Duo who told him that it was a character from an online game on the Internet.

"So we can choose characters not just from Anime?"

"Yeah, you can choose from manga, Anime, movie, or novel, as long as the character has either yaoi hints or a pairing. Take them for example." Duo gestured his fork toward two girls with black robes, sitting on floor on the other side of the room. They were talking and swinging a wooden stick. "Those girls chose the characters from a famous children's book."

Heero picked up his corn and looked at the girls. The short haired one with round glasses was wearing a red and gold symbol on her chest with a red and gold scarf. The other one with chin length hair didn't have any symbol on her black robes. Her right hand was holding the wooden stick while the other hand was holding a small bottle containing green liquid.

Heero recognized the characters and widened his eyes. He almost dropped his corn when he turned to Duo in disbelief. "Those two characters are known to be a yaoi pairing as well?"

"Yup." Duo nodded and continued devouring his grilled fish.

"Their ages are greatly different." Heero looked back at the girls. "I bet whoever likes this pairing has inclination toward pedophilia."

"Oi, it's pedophilia if the boy is eleven years old. Most fans will increase his age to past the age of consent. They are a pretty normal pairing." Duo pointed out.

Heero just grunted. "They hate each other in the Books."

"Opposites attract." Duo grinned. He pointed to Heero and then to himself.

Heero snorted at the obvious indication of Odin and Solo's relationship. He dismissed the black robed girls and watched another girl. This one was wearing a black Japanese boy style uniform with cute white wings on her back. Heero instantly knew which character the girl was cosplaying. He had seen so many pictures of the character with wings. Some with angel wings and some with devil wings. There were so many pictures of him with wings that he had thought the character really had wings in the story. It wasn't until after he'd watched the Anime that he realized the character actually didn't have wings. Talk about misguiding pictures.....

Finished with his corn, Heero picked up his sausages and saw the dark skinned girl with white tank top walking in. She was the one her friends called Blowfish. Curious, he asked Duo which character the girl posed as.

"A character from a yaoi manga." Duo answered with a grin.

Heero decided he didn't want to know anything further about this ones character. Not when Duo's grin was positively evil.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The dinner went as smooth and as peaceful as a teenage girls dinner could go. Duo had fetched them some white wine which Heero was sipping at the moment. He was on his second glass when Cirle, aka Hilde, stood in the middle of living room and clapped her hands for attention.

"Okay, girls," Hilde started.

"And boys, " Duo added.

"And boys," Hilde grinned as the other girls, who had been outside, started crowding into the living room. "We are going to have a trivia game here. We need two teams, each consists of two people. Who wants to play?"

"Count us in!" Duo raised his hand.

"Us?" Heero raised an eyebrow in displeasure.

"Odin and Solo on a mission!" Duo grinned, "C'mon, it will be fun!" He then dragged the short haired boy into the middle of the living room where Hilde had sat down and pointed to the assigned area on her left for them to sit down.

Having nothing else to do, Heero relented and didn't grumble much as he sat down on the rugged floor. To be honest, he was intrigued by the game. There was a big possibility that the trivia would based on Anime. After all this was Anime gathering, albeit yaoi in particular.

Their opponents happened to be two girls wearing similar tennis shirts. One was wearing a cap while the other was holding a tennis racquet.

"Alright, we have Grand Wing team versus Tennis Supreme for the first round!" Hilde announced. "The game rule is simple. I will ask a question and if any of you know the answer, ring this." She gave a bell to each team, "The first team who rings its bell will have the right to answer. Each question has several answers. We have assigned certain points for a certain answer. The points range from 1 to 5. So even though you might answer more often than your opponent, that doesn't guarantee you are the winner. You have to make sure that the answer you give has the possibility for highest points. Now, since there are two members in each team, we will call them as Seme and Uke."

The girls giggled while Heero felt his face getting red at the mention of the names. He knew what those names referred to, no thanks to his cousin. He turned to Duo quickly and said, "I'm Seme, you're Uke." He added a good dose of glare when he noticed Duo was about to protest.

Duo who had been in process of opening his mouth, quickly shut it out and gave him a conceding grin.

"The questions will have to be answered by Seme and Uke alternately." Hilde continued her explanation. "If the Seme answers the first question then the second question can only be answered by the Uke and vice versa. If the answer isn't listed on the answer sheet, the opposing team will be given a chance to answer. The winner will be the one who get the highest points in the end of the game. Any questions?"

Hilde looked at the teams expectantly. When both teams shook their heads, she clapped her hands then pulled out some cards from beneath her coat. "OKAY!!! Let's begin the game! Seme will answer the first question."

The bell ready in his hand, Heero sat in anticipation of the first question.

"Question one," Hilde paused for the effect, "In manga, what character do you think is the ultimate Seme?"

Hand ready to ring the bell and mouth opened to answer, Heero blinked at the shocking question. The next thing he knew, the Seme of the opposing team had rung her bell and answered the question. Hilde gave her three points for the answer.

"Question 2!" Hilde announced. "Uke's turn!"

"Oi, give me the bell." Since Heero was still in shock, Duo had to wrestle the bell from Heero's hand. That action naturally brought Heero out of his shock. The short haired boy belatedly shut his open mouth and glared at the boy next to him.

"This is a yaoi trivia game??!" Heero hissed at his braided partner who suddenly looked way too innocent, much to his disgust.

"Of course, this is yaoi gathering after all." Duo smiled. "Now hush, I want to hear the question."

"What is the kinkiest place to have sex?" Hilde shouted the second question.

Duo managed to ring the bell before the opponent did.

"Grand Wing team! What is your answer?" Hilde asked as she pointed her hand to Duo.

Heero's eyes widened at the second question. Not only yaoi, the trivia was also about sex!!! And he was somehow dragged into joining the pervert game. Someone was going to pay for this. It was then that he noticed Relena grinning and giggling a few feet from where Hilde was seated. Heero was thinking about enlarging his cousin's horribly white hair pictures and posting them to her parents when Duo answered.

"Library," the braided boy answered with a grin.

Library?? The place where he often went for the tranquillity and knowledge. Not very likely! It was impossible to have sex in library. The noise would draw the other library occupants! Heero certainly couldn't accept the answer.

However, Hilde certainly could accept it for she rewarded Grand Wing team with four points. "Okay, third question. Seme's turn."

Duo offered the bell to Heero, who reluctantly took it.

Hilde fired out the question. "Which body part is considered a fetish?"

How the hell he was supposed to know about that?? He even didn't know what a fetish was! Heero glared at his 'never-going-to ring' bell as their opponent answered the question.

"Foot?" Hilde repeated the answer. "Four points for you, girls!"

"What's a fetish?" Heero whispered his question to Duo as he gave Duo the bell.

Duo's violet eyes widened slightly then he grinned secretly. "I'll explain later."

Hilde shouted the next question and Duo snatched it right away. The patterns continued with Duo answering all the questions in each Uke's turn and Heero failing to answer any questions in each Seme's turn. No, he couldn't give any example of a BDSM toy. No, he didn't know the name of seiyuu that often filled the voices of uke characters. Being a bright and competitive person, Heero didn't like being unable to answer any of the questions, regardless that the questions were out of his league. So he tried hard to think of possible answers for the absurd questions. However, as the absurd questions went by, he still couldn't think of a decent answer.

Hilde finally yelled the last question, "What is the most famous yaoi pairing in Anime?"

In his desperation to answer, before he knew what he was doing, Heero found out he had waved the bell in his hand.

"Grand Wing team!" Hilde announced. "This is your first and last chance to answer, Odin. Don't let your uke down!"

The girls giggled at Hilde's words. Heero himself had turned to Duo during Hilde's speech. The braided boy made a subtle gesture of pointing to himself then Heero. Heero blinked at the implication

"So what's your answer, Odin?" Hilde asked expectantly.

Turning to face Hilde, Heero decided to answer as what Duo had hinted at. "Odin and Solo"

"Smart fellow!" Hilde laughed, "Five points for Grand Wing!"

As the other girls cheered for him, Heero turned his head back to Duo. He felt quite happy to finally be able to answer a question and answer it correctly. Watching the wide happy grin on the braided boy, Heero couldn't help but quirking his mouth up slightly. Strange that he didn't mind so much it being yaoi game anymore. Duo had been right, he had had fun.

However, that didn't mean he wanted to continue the absurd game.

Hilde had announced Grand Wing as the winner of the first round and would face new opponent for the second round. Heero immediately refused and escaped the game area.

Duo followed him a minute later and walked next to him. "Hilde and the other girls are disappointed, you know."

Heero raised an eyebrow at his braided friend. "And why should I care?"

Duo chuckled and shook his head slightly. "You are one cold bastard, you know. You don't care about the females feelings. Very similar to Odin."

Heero's mouth quirked up. "Thank you, I take that as a compliment."

Duo laughed as his own words this morning were thrown back to him.

Heero waited until Duo's laughter subsided before prompting the braided boy's promise to help him with his revenge. "As Odin's best friend, Solo will help Odin in his mission of dealing with a certain Princess, won't he?"

Duo's violet eyes flashed mischievously at the reminder. "Death at your service." He bowed down mockingly then dragged Heero into the kitchen.


	5. Chapter 5

"How is it?"

"Too bitter."

"Now?"

"Still bitter."

"You're right. How about this?"

"Too sweet. What was that last bottle?"

"Jim Beam."

"I hope the girls are all above 18."

"Don't worry, now try this."

"Still too sweet."

Duo grabbed the last wine bottle and poured its contents into the big kettle. "Now?"

Heero took another sip from the mixture. "Perfect."

Duo grinned.

"I don't see what the relation between mixing the drinks and my revenge is though."

"Oi, revenge is best served cold." Duo poured the mixture into the ready glasses. "My plan is simple actually. Relena said she would join in the next game after the new year countdown. So we will get her a little drunk before the game starts. It's fortunate that I'm in charge of mixing these drinks."

Heero waited but then he realized that Duo didn't intend to explain further. He was feeling a bit drunk himself after repeatedly tasting the concoction, not to mention the two full glasses of white wine he had already consumed during dinner. Not that he would admit that to Duo. The braided boy had also tasted the concoction, but he looked unaffected. Heero would be damned if he would show that he couldn't hold his liquor as well as his friend.

"Then?" Heero prompted, hoping his voice wasn't slurred.

"Then you will see." Duo winked.

Heero rolled his eyes. "That's a half cocked plan that you have for my mission."

"Improvisation during the mission is my talent."

Heero snorted and finished the glass he had used to sample the brew. "If you fail this mission, omae o korosu."

"If I don't, will you reward me?"

"Huh? Reward?" Heero set down his glass on the kitchen's counter and frowned. "What reward?"

"You mentioned about some new Anime movies you have while we were on the journey here this morning."

"You want a copy of them? Sure."

Duo grinned widely. "Ninmu ryoukai."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Having finished with the trivia game, Hilde then announced that the new year's countdown would be held outside, near the barbecue pit. It would start in ten minutes. As all the girls took a stand outside, Duo started distributing the drinks. Hilde helped the braided boy while Heero concentrated on bringing the biggest glass of the mix to his cousin. Relena was delighted with his 'kindness' and thanked him.

Heero knew he should feel guilty. He was not, however.

Feeling giddy and strangely happy, Heero took a glass for himself. He stood near the cottage, a few feet away from the flock of girls. Relena was giving a speech about how happy she was with the gathering going smoothly and spoke of her resolution for the new year. The girls raised their glasses after Relena's speech and sipped their drinks. Heero sipped his as well.

"Don't get drunk before you get your revenge." Duo appeared next to him, holding a glass of the mixture as well.

Heero snorted. "I'm not drunk."

It was Hilde's turn to give a speech now. She spoke passionately about her satisfaction with the gathering and thankfully it was a short speech. The girls cheered for her as well and sipped their drinks. Heero followed suit.

"Alright, ladies," Hilde shouted. "Countdown from twenty, start now! Twenty..."

"Nineteen..." The other girls joined in the countdown. "Eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen.."

Heero smiled at the girls enthusiastic countdown.

"Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, " Relena joined in with the countdown, having finished her big glass of the concoction. She was unaware that she was being watched by two grinning boys.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six," Duo caught Heero's eye as he saluted him with his glass.

Holding Duo's gaze, Heero raised his glass and finished the contents. He then joined in with the countdown.

"Five, four," Duo downed his drink.

"Three, two, "

"One,"

"ZERO!" The girls all shouted together.

Right after the last number had been counted all the lights suddenly went out. Heero found himself in total darkness.

"What happened?" Relena shouted.

"I don't know." Hilde answered.

"I think it's a blackout," another girl commented. "The lights are out in the other cottages as well."

Heero wasn't aware of the conversation though; as soon as the lights had blacked out there was something warm and soft pressed against his lips. Heero blinked in confusion and raised his hand, wanting to know what it was. However, the second he moved, that warm and soft feeling disappeared. His hand reached nothing. The sudden loss of feeling made him stagger a bit.

Then as suddenly as they'd gone out, the lights came back to life. The girls cheered in relief. Heero blinked in surprise and at the sudden brightness.

"Are you okay?"

Heero turned his head to the right and saw Duo standing a few feet away. The braided boy looked pleased about something.

"Of course. Why are you grinning like that?"

Duo just grinned wider and swung his empty glass lazily. "I'm happy with the new year."

Heero rolled his eyes and dismissed his friend. He thought about what had happened during the brief blackout. Could the soft and warm feeling against his lips have been someone's lips? Someone had been kissing him?

Heero shook his head to clear his mind from the drinks he had consumed. Kissing was impossible. It would take about five seconds for one the girls to reach him. The darkness had lasted no longer than five seconds and the only person near enough to him was Duo, who hadn't moved from where he was. No, it was impossible for it to be a kiss. Maybe he was just imagining things. The drinks certainly had confused his mind.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Come on girls, shift around and make room for the others," Hilde instructed. After the new year countdown, they had all gathered in the living room where Hilde had then announced that they were going to play another game. This game required them all to sit in a circle. This time all of them joined in the game so it was a big circle that formed in the living room. Heero hurriedly sat down next to Duo, not wanting to be stuck between two girls.

Satisfied with the circle formation, Hilde put an empty bottle into the center of the ring and explained the game. "This game is a combination of Spin the Bottle and Truth or Dare."

The girls cheered.

Heero groaned.

"We will spin the bottle and the person the bottle points to will have to choose Truth or Dare. Depending on the choice, the one who spins the bottle gets to ask the question or request an action." Hilde grinned then. "To make the game more interesting, we will play the game as the characters we are cosplaying respectively. For example, if Duo here gets pointed at by the bottle, he will have to answer a question or take the dare like Solo Minworst is supposed to act. The one who questions or dares him will also have to keep in mind that they are dealing with Solo Minworst instead of Duo Maxwell. Any questions?"

A 'no' chorus was heard from the girls. Heero was feeling glad that he'd chosen Odin as his character. It was easy to act as Odin. He would just keep silent or shoot whoever dared to ask him anything. Poor Duo would have to answer the questions truthfully because Solo was known to never tell any lies.

"And of course if you refuse to do the dare or answer the question, you'll be punished." Hilde grinned evilly and gestured to the girl sitting across from her. "Our friend here has prepared a vile concoction which you will have to drink as your punishment."

Heero looked at the girl wearing the tennis costume. He wondered whether the glasses she wore were part of her costume or not. She was grinning as she raised a big bottle filled with green liquid for everyone to see. "I have mixed veggies and some spices in it. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe to drink. It's healthy actually, but I can't guarantee the taste, which is of course the purpose of this punishment."

"Trust me, you better avoid the punishment." Hilde added her two cents worth.

The girls shuddered while Heero looked at the bottle dubiously.

"Okay, let's start the game!" Relena took over. "I suggest we give the honor of spinning the bottle for the first time to Hilde who has worked so hard for this gathering."

No protest was issued for the suggestion so Hilde happily went into the center and spun the bottle. When the bottle stopped spinning, the girls laughed as the first victim was chosen. Heero thought inwardly that God must have found his sense of justice since it was the girl who'd concocted the punishment mixture who got pointed at by the bottle.

"Poor girl, " Hilde ruined her words by grinning at the girl. "So truth or dare?"

The girl grimaced and chose truth.

Hilde's eyes gleamed with mischief as she delivered the question. "Tell us how you make love with your tennis racquet. In detail."

Heero was taken aback with Hilde's question. He again realized that this was a yaoi gathering, not an ordinary gathering. He should have known that the game was not as innocent as it seemed; Heero reflected mournfully as the girl stammered her answer. Her face was as red as tomato.

"She's lucky she didn't choose dare." Duo whispered from where he was seated next to Heero.

"Oh?" Heero didn't think the girl was lucky.

"Hilde could ask her to 'show' it instead of 'tell', you know."

Heero shuddered. Suddenly the girls around him looked like a pack of hungry vultures. "Is there any chance to ditch the game?" He whispered back to Duo.

The braided boy raised an eyebrow to him. "Don't tell me Perfect Odin is afraid of a harmless game?"

"Of course not," Heero quickly retorted. He then groaned and damned his pride for trapping him in this 'harmless' but humiliating game.

The spectacled girl had finished her explanation. She exchanged place with Hilde and spun the bottle. It pointed at the girl with white tank-top whom Heero had heard her friends refer to as Blowfish. Since Heero didn't know her real name as well as her character name, he associated her with the only name he knew, Blowfish.

Blowfish had chosen truth. The tennis girl's eyes sparkled behind her spectacles as she asked her victim to tell them the details of an event when she'd taken the uke position for the first time.

Blowfish smirked. "Never, because I will never bottom."

Heero found out later from Duo that the Blowfish character always took the seme position in the story. Her answer was so in character that the other girls cheered. The spectacled girl grumbled as her victim escaped with her dignity unscathed.

Some girls distributed what left of the mixture Duo and Heero had made before the new year countdown. Heero poured it into his glass and sipped it as the game continued.

It was Blowfish's turn then to spin the bottle. The next victim was a girl with spiky blonde hair. She wore a white T-shirt with a green, long sleeved outer shirt and blue jeans. Heero knew the character the girl was cosplaying was from the same Anime as Relena's, but he didn't remember which character it was. The girl bravely chose a dare.

"Demonstrate how you would do a striptease for your lover." Blowfish stated her dare gleefully.

The other girls went wild hearing this. Lewd whistles could be heard as the current victim turned several shades of red. In the end, the girl decided to take punishment instead of doing the dare. The others weren't disappointed with her choice, since watching her take the punishment had been an entertainment in itself.

Heero watched the poor girl make a face as Hilde gave her a glass full of green liquid. She pinched her nose with one hand and used the other hand to pour the glasses contents into her mouth. There was a strained silence for some seconds after the girl swallowed the liquid before the poor girl dashed to the bathroom. The other girls snickered as an indescribable sound emerged from the closed bathroom's door. Heero decided it was better suffering a little humiliation than drinking that vile concoction.

They waited until the poor girl returned and the game resumed. Having been a victim, it was no surprise that the girl took her turn with vengeance. The next victim suffered the humiliation of having to tell her character's deepest desire for the character's best friend. As the game progressed, some girls could think of devious questions or dares while some were too kind to deliver such actions. So some girls got it easy while some got thoroughly flustered. Hilde was one who got it easy as she only had to answer who her character preferred as his seme. There were some other girls who had chosen to bear the punishment so Heero got to watch the scene of girls scampering to the bathroom several more times.

Eventually, the bottle pointed at Heero. He had hoped that God would be kind and spare him the humiliation, but it appeared it was too much to hope for that kind of leniency.


	6. Chapter 6

"Truth." Heero stated his choice, knowing there would be more humiliation if he chose dare. He had intended to answer whatever question was thrown at him gallantly. He really did. However, in the end he chose to have the punishment instead.

There was no way he would tell how Solo made love to him in the Grand Wing's cockpit. No way. Not with Solo's re-embodiment sitting next to him and grinning expectantly. He couldn't stay silent like Odin usually did since he had to answer the question. And he couldn't shoot the girl who asked him the question since shooting would be counted as action. He had chosen answering instead of taking action. Duo's unrepentant smile made him glare at the braided boy. Heero snatched the glass filled with evil concoction and quickly swallowed it.

God, it tasted absolutely awful! Heero could feel the bile rise up to his throat. No wonder the girls darted to the bathroom after drinking it. All the girls looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to do the same. It was only his pride that made him able to sit still and not dash to the bathroom as well.

"Are you okay, Odin?" Relena asked innocently. Too innocently.

"Fine." Heero gritted his teeth as he took his place in the center and spun the bottle. It pointed to another girl. As much as Heero wanted to take revenge, his knowledge about yaoi was very inadequate. He resented that his victim got off easy but there was nothing he could do about it. The game continued again. Heero quickly took a long swallow from his glass which he had refilled with the brew Duo and he had mixed. He felt more lightheaded than before but it was a small compensation to lessen the dire after taste in his mouth. A few more spins of the bottle and it finally pointed at Duo.

Heero tensed, feeling somehow that he would be involved. He really hoped he would be proven wrong.

Duo, being the baka he was, chose the dare. Heero could hear his inner self groaning and cursing his braided friend. He drank from his glass again in frustration.

"I dare you to propose to Odin to marry you. I want a successful proposal, aka your proposal has to be convincing enough to make Odin agree to marry you." The girl wearing a Japanese school uniform stated Duo's dare with a smile. Despite a pair of small white angel wings on her back, there was nothing angelic in her smile.

Heero stared at Duo in horror after hearing the verdict. No way was Duo going to do that. He would choose to drink that vile concoction.... Wouldn't he? The spreading grin on the braided boy's face made Heero feel his impending doom. He groaned when Duo turned to him, obviously set to carry out the dare. The braided boy raised himself into one knee and shifted so that he was kneeling in front of Heero.

"Odin, will you marry me?"

The girl cheered while Heero glared at Duo with all his might. "Omae o korosu."

Duo wasn't deterred. If anything, the baka grinned even wider. Catcalls and whistles came from the girls as an encouragement for the brave Solo Minworst.

"Use this, Solo!" Hilde cackled as she threw something at Duo.

Duo caught it deftly and shouted his thanks to the girl. Heero realized it was a flower bouquet that Hilde had thrown to Duo. It was now being presented to him by the grinning baka. Duo cunningly changed his grin into a proper solemn smile before proposing to Heero again.

"You're a cold bastard, Odin. But I love you with all my heart anyway. Please, marry me."

Lights from cameras continued to flash as the girls hungrily took pictures of their dream-come-true. The drink seemed to have lessened his inhibition and Heero found himself pulling the toy gun out of his jacket and firing at his suitor.

The girls cried out in surprise while Duo yelped as the plastic bullet hit his forehead. There was a surprise silence for all two seconds before the girls saw the humor and laughed. Duo rubbed his forehead and to Heero's horror, the braided boy was still grinning.

"That's my Odin. Spirited as always." Duo delivered the false praise. Heero saw the mischievous gleam on those violet eyes before the braided boy tackled him. One second Heero was sitting and next second he found himself flat on his back with Duo hovering over him. "I won't let you go until you agree to marry me, sweetheart."

"Omae o korosu." Heero struggled to get away but Duo's position gave the braided boy the advantage over him. The girls whistled, cooed, and catcalled around them, encouraging Duo to do more than just hover.

Heero knew a way to free himself from this mortifying situation but that didn't mean he liked doing it. With a glare and telling Duo that he was doing this under protest, Heero shouted for the girls to hear. "Fine! I'll marry you!"

Some girls cheered, some others, horny vultures that they were, let out a disappointed sigh. Duo just grinned and let Heero go. The short haired boy sat up and promptly got hugged by his successful suitor.

"I'm so happy, Odin!" Duo spoke cheerfully, acting exactly like Solo the Joker.

A smell of burnt coals, wine, and something unique to Duo assaulted Heero's nostrils as the braided boy embraced him. For a second, the noise the girls made faded into background as Heero felt warm and safe. Then the noise returned and Heero quickly pushed the braided boy away.

Duo just grinned, totally looking unrepentant of his actions. He nonchalantly took his place in the center of the ring and spun the bottle.

The glower Heero had started to build quickly disappeared when he noticed whom the bottle pointed to.

It was Relena! Heero didn't know how Duo did it. He didn't care whether the long haired boy was cheating or not. The important thing was that he'd got Relena!

"Oh Solo, be nice to me!!" Relena tried to plead nicely but her words were slurred and she couldn't sit still. She was clearly drunk.

"Don't worry, Princess!" Duo grinned while he threw a wink at Heero.

The short haired boy sat straight and watched Relena carefully. If Duo's wink meant anything, it would be a sign that Heero was going to get his revenge.

"You're going to choose a dare, aren't you?" Duo asked innocently.

Feeling that Duo was going to go easy on her, Relena nodded eagerly.

"Then I dare you dance around the circle, wearing a tutu!"

The girls giggled while Heero stared at his friend in adoration. He raised his glass in salute to the grinning Duo and emptied it in one gulp. It appeared Hilde had the tutu prepared and she put it on her drunk friend without any sympathy for her. Relena uttered a weak protest, but since it was a dare, she would have to do it. Just like Heero, the alcohol had loosened her up a little. In just a short time she had started swaying her tutu wrapped hips as she walked around the circle.

Heero couldn't be more pleased. He spent the rest of his camera's memory card just to get as many pictures of his cousin in pink tutu as possible.

"So, are you satisfied with my half baked mission?" Duo asked him as the braided boy settled back next to Heero.

Heero grinned at his best friend. "Very."

"Do I get my reward then?"

Reward? Heero blinked. Oh, the new Anime. Heero knew he would give more than that if Duo wanted. Relena in a pink tutu was priceless! Heero punched Duo's shoulder playfully. "You'll get whatever reward you want."

Duo took Heero's punch to his shoulder then grabbed his hand and grinned. "I'll hold you to that."

Heero nodded and watched as Relena completed the circle in her pink tutu. The short haired boy was too light headed to realize that Duo never let his hand go.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I will never forget the sight of Relena in a pink tutu." Heero chuckled as he stepped into the bedroom. After Relena had finished her dance, Hilde announced that it was the end of the game. The girls were reluctant at first to end the game but they quickly agreed when Hilde told them there would be a marathon screening of yaoi Anime.

It was long past midnight, Heero figured out he would prefer sleeping than being subjected to watching yaoi movies. He made his excuses and quickly fled the scene. The alcohol he'd consumed had started to dominate his mind. He shed his jacket and threw his toy gun in his bag's direction. His walking was clumsy and the bed seemed to duplicate before his eyes. Nevertheless, he managed to find the bed. Well, he bumped into it to be more precise. Plopping down on the bed, Heero stared at the ceiling, a goofy smile on his face as he replayed Relena dancing in her pink tutu. He chuckled and squirmed around the bed happily.

"You are drunk."

Heero blinked and lifted his head to see the speaker. Duo was standing at the door, looking at him in amusement. "What are you doing here?"

"I plan to sleep here." Duo said as he closed the door and approached the bed.

Heero yawned and plopped back onto the bed. "Sleep? Aren't you going to watch the movies?"

"I want to but I have to drive tomorrow so sleep is more important to me. It's not a big deal. I've seen some of the movies anyway and I can always borrow the movies from Hilde if I want to."

"Hmm.." Heero closed his eyes. Duo's voice was quite low and soothing.

"Oh, I visited bathroom just now. The handle is broken again, someone must have turned the lock too hard. Anyway, if you want to use the bathroom, remember to knock first from now on. If someone is in the bathroom, they will shout to let you know they are using it. Anyway, you know what is a fortunate thing? The girls are too engrossed with the movies to notice we aren't there. I didn't have to make an excuse to leave. " Duo stood next to the bed and looked down at Heero, grinning. "Besides, I would be a fool to miss a night sleeping with my fiancé."

The reply from Heero was a soft snore.

Duo blinked and chuckled lowly. "And just my luck, my fiancé is too far gone into Morpheus' world for me to take advantage of this situation. Oh well, at least you won't protest if I do this."

The braided boy settled down on the bed next to Heero and slowly took Heero into his arms. "Night, Heero." He kissed Heero's forehead and closed his eyes.

Heero sighed in his sleep and snuggled deeper into the warmth enveloping him.


	7. Chapter 7

A pounding headache and the taste of unwashed sock in his mouth greeted Heero as he woke up. The short haired boy groaned out loud at his misfortune. His head felt like exploding. What the hell had happened to him? Heero lay still, not wanting to increase his headache and trying to sort out his memory of last nights events. Okay, judging from his current condition and the amount of alcohol he had consumed, he definitely had been drunk. Remembering Relena in pink tutu certainly made him smile though. Thankfully he hadn't done anything stupid last night. Well, no more stupid than accepting a proposal from Duo.

Talking about Duo, his last memory was of Duo coming into the bedroom. Heero rolled over and looked around. He found he was alone in the bed and in the room. He didn't have time to think any more about his discovery as his stomach protested against his movement.

Heero put a hand over his mouth as his last meal threatened to come up his throat. God, he would never ever get drunk again! Not wanting to ruin the bed, Heero hurriedly left it and went out, his only goal was the toilet in the bathroom. Paying no attention to his surroundings, Heero opened the bathroom door. The toilet was located right across from the door and upon seeing it, he dashed over and poured out the contents of his stomach.

After a few minutes of retching and heaving, his stomach finally settled down. Heero sighed in relief, pushed the flush button and turned to the sink, clumsily washing out his mouth.

"Are you feeling okay now?"

Heero froze in the middle of wiping his mouth. He turned to his right where the voice came from. The shower in this cottage didn't have a curtain and Heero found out first hand how uncomfortable it could be not to have the curtain. There in the shower, was Duo. Though his head was looking at Heero, Duo's back was mostly presented to him, hiding his front. The long hair was unravelled and covered his back, but those sinuous strands couldn't hide most of the bare buttocks and legs.

Heero gasped as he realized he was looking at Duo who was buck naked and dripping wet.

"What are you doing here?!" Heero yelled in mortification.

"As you can see, I'm taking a shower," Duo said as he turned his head back toward the shower spray and rubbed the soap around his body calmly.

"Can't you wait until I've finished using the bathroom?" Heero barked, trying to cover whatever feelings he was having at the moment.

"I was using the bathroom when you came in and went directly to the toilet," Duo pointed out, not looking at Heero.

"What? But the door was unlocked! You should lock the door if you are using it!"

"I told you last night that the door couldn't be locked. I also told you that you should knock before entering."

"No way! I don't recall you saying anything about that," Heero retorted while inwardly, he cursed himself for even being in this embarrassing situation.

Duo glanced at Heero. "Well, I guess you didn't remember it then. You were drunk and half asleep when I told you."

"If you knew I was half asleep, then you should also know that I wouldn't be able to listen to you clearly!"

"I didn't know at first," Duo answered back. "Look, can we discuss this later? I think it's better to finish my shower before the girls realize that we both are here with me naked and you watching."

Heero gasped, only just realizing that they were still in the nest of hungry yaoi vultures and cursed his alcohol induced mind; he belatedly remembered that he was still staring at Duo. Feeling his face become warm with alarming speed, Heero quickly escaped from the bathroom and ran back toward the bedroom. His headache was all but forgotten.

Dear God, just kill him now. There was no way he could face Duo after this. Not only had he barged in while Duo was showering. He'd also continued watching Duo when he should have turned around instead. Heero groaned feeling totally mortified and buried his head in the pillow on the bed. If only God would be merciful and let him restart this day in a more proper way.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Of course there was no way God would let him restart his day, Heero reflected mournfully as he watched the scenery and other cars before him. He had suffered embarrassment once more when Duo had come into the bedroom, clothed and fresh from the shower. Heero had apologized with his head down, not being able to meet Duo's eyes. He'd then fled to take his own shower and had been avoiding Duo ever since. It was fortunate for him that the accident had happened early in the morning while all the girls were still deep in sleep, no doubt having sweet yaoi dreams after the movie marathon. No one had known about the embarrassing event and Heero was thankful for that.

However, he couldn't avoid Duo forever. Relena had again made him ride in Duo's car on their way back home. So here he was now, sitting next to Duo and trying very hard to ignore him. It was really hard for him to do. Heero kept remembering the wet body he had seen that morning and how those long locks had clung to the fantastic body. Heero groaned and tried to shove that memory away.

"How long are you going to pretend I'm not here?"

Heero jerked up in surprise and looked at Duo. The long haired boy had swept his hair back into a ponytail. His violet eyes were trained on the road in front of him. Heero quickly looked away before his thoughts could go further. "I'm sorry."

"You said that before," Duo said exasperatedly. "Really, Heero, it's okay. I'm not angry with you. It wasn't your fault."

Heero didn't say anything. He was glad that Duo wasn't angry with him.

"Look, I want my friend back, not someone who bows his head every time he sees me. Forget this mornings events if you must, but I would rather you didn't."

Heero blinked. He looked back at Duo who still had his eyes trained on the road. Had he just heard what Duo had said correctly? "Excuse me? You don't want me to forget?"

"Of course not," Duo grinned. "I'm proud of my body. I'll bet you've never seen a body as good as mine, have you?"

No. Heero swallowed the word back. No way he would admit that he found Duo's body beautiful. Well not only body but the rest of him as well. Duo was right, he would lose a good friend if he kept avoiding Duo like this.

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Heero spoke to his friend. "I don't know. I don't make a habit of watching someone else's body like you appear to. Maybe you have the worst body. Anyway, I think I'd better forget all about that event."

"As long as I get my friend back," Duo grinned. "Friends?"

"Friends," Heero nodded. "Now, you promised to tell me what a fetish is."

Duo grinned even wider. "A fetish is something that you find arousing."

"Arousing? This is about sex again? Why I am not surprised?" Heero rolled his eyes. "The girls are all perverted."

"Don't let Hilde or Relena hear you say that."

"Do I look stupid to you?"

"No, but you're still naïve sometimes."

Heero glared at his long haired friend. "I'm not naïve!"

"If you say so," Duo grinned.

Heero harrumphed and looked outside. This time though there was a small smile on his face. The best thing he'd discovered from this gathering was that he'd gotten a friend he enjoyed very much to be with. Seeing Relena in pink tutu was the second best thing. After some time spent in a comfortable silence, Duo engaged him in another topic, which got them into a heated discussion for the rest of journey.


	8. Chapter 8

Heero was enjoying the newest episode of Grand Wing he had just downloaded when his phone rang.

"Hi, Yuy speaking."

"Hi, Heero. It's me."

Heero's eyes lit up as he recognized the voice. "Duo, what's up?"

"Well..." Duo hesitated. "If you have time, can you accompany me to Reyna beach tomorrow?"

Heero blinked. They'd just returned from the gathering three days ago and now Duo wanted to go back there? "What for?"

"I just found out that I left the cross I wore for the gathering in the cottage. The cross is actually Hilde's and she will skin me alive if she finds out I have lost it."

"So you need to go back to retrieve it," Heero snorted. "I don't know why you're so careless."

"Well, I'm usually not. I removed the cross before I took my shower. You know there was an accident happen while I was in the shower and it made me forget to retrieve the cross when I left the bathroom."

"I don't know what accident you're talking about," Heero said while his face flushed red.

"Oi, I forgot you'd decided to forget it." Duo chuckled. "So will you go?"

"Sure. I don't have anything else to do tomorrow."

"Cool, I'll pick you up tomorrow at 11 AM then."

"Hey, wait. Do you even know where my apartment is?" When they'd returned to the city after the gathering three days ago, Heero had asked to be dropped at the place where they had gathered first.

"Relena told me." Duo said casually. "I'll see you tomorrow. Oh yeah, bring your swimming trunks just in case."

When Duo had hung up, Heero decided he would have to have a word with his meddlesome cousin. The mention of pink tutu was a very effective way to keep Relena in line nowadays.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Thank God the cross was still there," Duo said as he got back into his car. He dangled the said cross for Heero to see. The boy was wearing casual clothes, a gray T-shirt with black jeans. His long hair was tied into one long tail behind him. "Now I'm safe from Hilde's wrath."

"That's a good thing." Heero agreed. "Now where to?"

Duo turned on the car's engine. "Well, since we are already at the beach, I figure we can take advantage of that and swim for a while."

"Fine by me," Heero spoke calmly. His heart was different matter. It started throbbing faster when he realized he would see Duo's bare body again when they went swimming.

Duo grinned at Heero's answer. He steered the car toward the free beach two kilometers from the cottage.

Heero tried to calm his heart, but the nearer they got to the beach, the faster it began to beat. He'd told Duo that he would rather forget about the embarrassing accident. However, he never forgot.

He couldn't forget it.

Duo's long, clinging hair.

Duo's wet, sinewy body.

Duo's violet eyes gleaming with mischief.

Those images would occupy Heero's mind at least once a day.

Though they had appeared to go back to their easy friendship, Heero knew something had changed.

He had changed. He had started seeing Duo differently after that embarrassing accident.

They finally arrived at the free beach. Duo parked the car in quiet secluded place. Still in the car, the long haired boy started shedding his clothes. Heero found that he couldn't tear his eyes away. He watched as Duo's body was slowly revealed. It was the same body he had seen three days ago. Only this time it was dry instead of wet. It had a healthy golden glow that Heero's own skin couldn't achieve.

Duo finished shedding his clothes and only had his swimming trunks on now. He looked at Heero in amusement.

"Enjoying the view?"

Heero swallowed then grunted. "That's your ego talking."

Duo just chuckled. Heero turned around and started removing his own clothes. He had worn his swimming trunks beneath his clothes just like Duo had. It was the practical thing to do after all. Heero could feel Duo's eyes on him as he disrobed and felt like squirming. His heart throbbed loudly, so loud that he thought Duo would be able to hear it.

"You have a nice body."

Heero glanced back at Duo. He swallowed when he saw the appreciation shining in those violet eyes. "You're one perverted, gay boy, you know that?"

"Guilty as charged, " Duo grinned. "Come on, let's swim."

Having finished removing his clothes, Heero stepped out of the car. He waited for Duo while the long haired boy locked his car then together they walked down the sands and jumped into the sea. Despite his nervousness about seeing Duo's wet body again, Heero was having fun. He loved swimming and he hadn't had time to swim during the gathering. He followed the waves and slid along them. Duo swam along side.

Heero's heart throbbed faster when he managed to get a full glimpse of Duo's bare body. But it was quickly forgotten when he got sprayed by the long haired boy. Heero of course sprayed his assailant back. That quickly turned into full blown water war.

After the water war, they went to rent sliding boards. Heero got onto his and swam further into the sea in search of big wave. The bigger the wave was, the longer he could glide along it. Of course, Duo didn't want to be left behind. Being the competitive teenage boys they were, the wave gliding turned into competition. Each of them tried to glide longer than the other. On one unfortunate turn, Duo lost his balance on the board and got turned over. Heero snickered when he saw Duo gasping for air. Of course God didn't let him enjoy the view. A big wave came from behind him and turned his board over. It was his turn to be gasping for air then.

They were in the water for two long hours before their skin started wrinkling. The sun had also begun to set. They agreed to call it a day. They still had a three hour drive back to the city after all.

They returned to where they had parked the car. Duo took out the towels he had brought and gave one to Heero.

"Thanks." Heero started drying his body. "I had a great time today."

"Me too." Duo grinned. He was drying his own body. "And for the record, I manage to glide longer than you."

"That's just pure luck," Heero snorted. He had finished drying his body and wrapped the towel around his waist. He retrieved his clothes and went to the changing rooms not far from the car. When he emerged from the changing room, Heero saw that Duo was still drying his hair. The setting sunlight fell upon his wet body, making it glisten. Heero swallowed as he felt his heart begin to pound rapidly again.

As Heero approached the bare chested boy, Duo smiled bitterly at him. "The disadvantage of having long hair." He grimaced as he tried to comb his wet and salty hair. "I tried to remove the hair tie but it got stuck in my hair."

"Let me help." Heero stepped closer to the long haired boy and reached for the tangled hair. It felt rough because of the salt water but Heero knew it would feel silky once Duo washed and dried it properly. The tie had gotten tangled in the hair. He stepped closer, wanting to take a good look at the messy knot. It took Heero five minutes to straighten it out.

"Finally!" Heero said triumphantly as he separated the tie from Duo's hair. "Here's the troublesome tie...." Heero forgot what he was about to say when he saw Duo's violet eyes up close. He had been looking down all the time in his effort to straighten Duo's hair. Now that he looked at Duo's eyes, he found that their faces were very close. It seemed that in his efforts to remove the tie, Heero had stepped closer than he'd intended to. There was only a feet distance between their bodies. The realization that he was so close with the perfect body he had thought a lot about during the past few days caused the butterflies inside his stomach to flutter rapidly.

Duo's expression wasn't helping either. The long haired boy was looking at him fondly, as if he was enjoying what he was seeing. Heero gulped. He knew he should pull away but Duo's eyes held him in place.

"Heero..."

Duo whispered his name huskily, sending a delighted shiver through his body. He watched as Duo's face drew closer and closer. Then all he was aware of was the feel of wet lips upon his; Duo's wet salty lips against his dry ones.

It felt nice.

Heero sighed when the kiss ended.

Duo looked at him in delight and leaned forward again. The second kiss was longer and more pleasant. He could feel his body tingle with pleasure. A wet tip brushed between his lips as if asking for entrance. Heero tentatively opened his mouth and gasped when the wet intruder slipped past it. It explored his mouth and cajoled his tongue to dance with it.

Verrrrrrry nice. Heero moaned as he leaned against Duo's bare chest.

The short haired boy was out of breath when the kiss ended. Somewhere during the kiss, Duo's arms had come up and were now trapping him between them. Not that Heero mind being trapped between those arms. A feeling of warmth and contentment enveloped him, making him sigh again. His arms came up and embraced Duo back. The happy sound Duo elicited made his lips quirk up.

Heero rested his head against Duo's, forehead against forehead, and closed his eyes. His mind was trying to take in what had happened just now. He had just kissed a boy. A gay boy. Did the fact that he liked Duo's kiss make him gay as well? He didn't feel repulsed. On contrary it was a very nice kiss. It felt right.

"Heero?" Duo asked tentatively.

The cautious tone made Heero realize that Duo was feeling unsure about what had just happened. Looking from Duo's point of view, the long haired boy had risked their friendship by initiating the kiss. If Heero had felt repulsed instead of what he was feeling right now, their friendship was pretty much ruined. But Heero didn't feel repulsed. He was feeling he was right where he wanted to be; and he just needed to let Duo know what he was feeling.

Heero tightening his embrace on Duo before he pulled his head away, allowing him to look into Duo's anxious face. Whatever the long haired boy was feeling was always evident on his face. It was very contrary to Heero. The short haired boy knew that his face still showed his neutral expression, an expression he had learned to master to make it difficult for Relena to judge his mood. Opposites attract; Heero remembered what Duo had told them. It seemed that applied not only to Odin and Solo but to Duo and him as well.

Heero allowed his neutral expression to slide into a slight smile. Duo's violet eyes shone with hope in reaction to his expression change. "Heero." His name was said with much more certainty than before.

"I liked the kiss." Heero saw no point of beating around the bush.

"I'm glad." Duo's lips curled up.

"That was my first kiss, you know."

"Oh?"

Heero made an agreeable sound and closed his eyes, enjoying their closeness.

"I'm afraid to say that you're mistaken."

Heero blinked and opened his eyes. He saw Duo's violet eyes gleam wickedly. "What did you say?"

"This is your second kiss, I'm afraid."

"What..." Heero trailed off, remembering he had felt the same wet sensation on his lips when they had that black out right after the new year countdown. His eyes narrowed at the boy before him. "It was you that kissed me that night!"

"Guilty as charged." Duo grinned sheepishly.

Heero wanted to protest but it was a moot point. Whether Duo had kissed him or not on that night, he would still be Heero's first kiss. In the end, he punched lightly against Duo's chest to show his slight displeasure. "You should ask first before taking, you know."

"I learnt my lesson," Duo rubbed his chest, "and I'm asking now."

"Asking what?"

"Are you okay with this?" Duo put the hand he used to rub his chest around Heero's waist, tightening his embrace. "With us?"

"I don't know." Heero answered honestly. He could see Duo tense at his answer. "What I know is that your kiss feels right. I like being with you, Duo."

"That's good." Duo smiled in relief. "So are you okay with me treating you as my lover?"

"Yeah, but let's take this slowly, okay? How about being your boyfriend first?" Heero didn't want to admit it but he really was naïve. He didn't know much about being a boyfriend to a gay boy let alone being a lover.

"No problem." Duo smiled happily. The setting sun added the light to his violet eyes making them shine brightly.

Heero knew then that whatever he was feeling, it would be affected by what Duo was feeling himself. If Duo was happy, he would be happy and he believed it also applied the other way around.

Duo's smile then turned into a smirk.

Heero eyed his newly proclaimed boyfriend warily. "What are you thinking about?"

"I think the right label for you is my fiancé. After all you accepted my proposal, didn't you?"

"Omae o korosu."

"Ouch."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo was sporting a big bruise to his left eye when he went to meet Hilde the next day. No matter how much Hilde persuaded and threatened (when persuasion failed), he didn't tell her what had caused the bruise. He only mumbled something about learning not to poke a sleeping tiger.


	9. Chapter 9

One month later

"You have so much junk mail in your in-box," Heero tisked as he browsed Duo's e-mail application. He and Duo had visited each other's apartments several times and had become comfortable being together. They were currently in Duo's apartment. Duo was reclining in his chair next to Heero. One hand was comfortably resting around Heero's waist while the other hand was being used to hold up a novel. Heero was checking his boyfriend's computer. That was another thing that Heero and Odin had in common; their ability on the computer. Duo had asked Heero to sort out his computer so it would perform better and while Heero was on it, he also asked the short haired boy to help him with sorting out his emails.

"I will put a spam guard software on your e-mail," Heero told his boyfriend of one month. "How many mailing lists did you join? Twenty? And all of them yaoi? What a pervert!"

"Guilty as charged." Duo grinned as he kept reading his novel.

"What's this? SxOML?"

"SoloxOdin Mailing List."

"There is a whole list dedicated just to that pairing?"

"Hmm, that's the mailing list for the Solo and Odin pairing where they prefer Solo as the seme."

"....And where's the ML with Odin as the seme?"

Duo turned his attention from the novel to his boyfriend, looking at the short haired boy in amusement. "Are you jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous?" Heero snorted as he kept checking the e-mails. "Hey, there's an e-mail from Relena. The subject says '[Fic] New Year Gathering : A Report by Princess'. What does [Fic] mean?"

"Fic, you say? A report about our gathering? That's surely interesting. Let's read it." Duo put down his novel and read with his boyfriend.

Heero's eyes went wide as he read the 'report'. Relena had done a good job in writing the details of their gathering event into a story format. Why, she even started with the beginning of how she'd asked him to join the gathering, though she changed her beloved pink teddy bear to a Persian Cat. However, not all of the said report was true, especially when she reported about Duo and him. What Relena had written about them shocked him to the core. IT WAS VERY VERY WRONG!

Next to his shocked boyfriend, Duo was muttering mournfully. "I managed to have my wicked way with Heero in my car on our journey to the beach that morning? How lucky. She makes you much more compliant in this fic. Look, the next one is a blow job right before we came down in our costumes..... Hey, I only managed to kiss him for a second during that countdown not grope him thoroughly. Hmm... you get to demonstrate our favorite position in Truth or Dare. I get to kiss you after my proposal... what a nice fic. Relena erased her dancing in a pink tutu completely though. Oh, I even have my wicked way with you repeatedly after we went into our bedroom. She also made us take a bath together in the morning. Wow, it looks like Relena isn't as ignorant as we thought." Duo took the mouse from his still shocked boyfriend and scrolled down the report to read the rest of it. "After returning to the city, I get to stay in your apartment and we are fuck like bunnies for the rest of our happy life. The End."

Duo leaned back in his chair. "What a very nice and hot fic. But a fic is still a fic, a work of fiction. If only she knew the truth..." Duo grimaced and turned to his boyfriend. "How about finally letting me have my wicked way with you, love? Look, Heero and Duo in the fic did it on the first day they met. Surely one month later is more than enough time for Heero and Duo in the reality to do it as well?"

Heero finally managed to come out of his shock. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

Duo cringed. One month courting his boyfriend had seemed to make him an expert at judging the short haired boy's emotions. He stuck his fingers into his ears, knowing what would come after.

"RELENAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

~Owari~


End file.
